‘Nigeria’s minimum wage, GDP are fake’

A former chairman of the Yobe State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Mohammed Bukar, has said the N18,000 minimum wage for workers across the country is fake.

The former union leader also criticised the recent rating of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as unreal.

Bukar addressed reporters yesterday in Damaturu, the state capital, after the May Day celebration.

He noted that the rising inflation and market prices, as well as high taxation made the minimum wage unrealistic for workers.

Bukar said: “The so-called minimum wage that we talk about in Nigeria is very unrealistic because of the biting inflation, uncontrollable market prices and high taxation. The truth is that if you go to the market today, people give their prices based on your appearance. This is wrong. How can you judge the pocket of an individual from his appearance?

“These are the problems we are experiencing as workers in the country. With the high taxation and other factors, what the Nigerian worker is earning is far less than the so-called N18,000 minimum wage. Governments at all levels must act fast to solve these problems.

“If you have a high inflation rate and the larger population is living from hand to mouth, how can you then claim that you have the best GDP in Africa? This is fake statistics that does not reflect the true position of the economy in every elementary sense.”

The state chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Lawan M. Bukar, urged the government to review its poverty reduction policies to accommodate the poor and the less privileged.

He said: “…If the poor cannot sleep due to insecurity and hunger rumbles in their stomachs, the overfed rich cannot either. Everybody and everything, including the country, will be endangered. So, the government must review its people-oriented and poverty reduction policies.”